Vote Yes on Prop. 34

By editor

Created 10/26/2012 - 1:07pm

According to the impartial analysis of Prop. 34 and potential costs to taxpayers prepared by Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor in the Official Voter information Guide, “since the death penalty law was enacted in California in 1978, around 900 individuals have received a death sentence.

“Of these, 14 have been executed, 83 have died prior to being executed and about 75 have had their sentences reduced by the courts. As of July 2012, California had 725 offenders in state prison who were sentenced to death.”

At a rate of 14 executions for every 30 or so years, it would take about 1,500 years to execute the remaining 725 individuals now on death row. In less than 100 years, all of those people are going to be dead although more would continue to take their place.

Fourteen executed since 1978? At what cost?

“In total, [Prop. 34] would result in net savings to state and local governments related to murder trials, appellate litigation, and state corrections. These savings would likely be about $100 million annually in the first few years, growing to about $130 million annually thereafter.”

You can do the math on this.

Prop. 34 repeals the death penalty as the maximum punishment for a person found guilty of murder and replaces it with life imprisonment without possibility of parole.

As is now stands, most individuals will die before they can be executed. The death penalty is only a very remote possibility for a very few individuals.

But we’re still paying $100 to $130 million extra per year for something that will never happen.